Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I don't remember how I got to this site but someone linked me to Kind Over Matter where they were giving away this cute ABC Printable. You can still get your own so head on over.

I loved it immediately so I had it printed at Staples it and hung it in Catie's room. The frame was $5 at Liquidation World.

I'm actually not thrilled with the red (it looked much more pink on my computer monitor) but there are lots of other colours so I think eventually I'll replace this with another. I think they'd make such cute gifts though so I'll hold onto the red.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Well it seems this is the new in thing for toenails, pretty sparkles to dress up your toes. I hadn't heard anything about it but luckily I have a Mom who is up to date on these things. She came over and gave my toes this lovely treatment and we took photos along the way so you can do yours too.

This is your end result, pretty hey?

Here are your supplies.
You're going to need some toenail polish in a colour of your choice, some clear topcoat and some Martha Stewart glitter that co-ordinates with the polish. I used Orange Sorbet over a yellow polish and I love the results.

There are tons of glitter options though, all of these came in one pack

First you start with nice clean, bare toes. You can see my skin is still just a little red from where I removed my old polish, no big deal, it'll wear off.

Apply a base coat with your polish and let dry. I don't actually like the yellow on it's own but the glitter makes it perfect.

Once dry apply a second coat to your big toe only, immediately sprinkling some glitter over the toe. Make sure you work over some sort of surface like a piece of paper so you can re-use the run off. Once the big toe is done continue with the other toes doing no more than two at once.

Let your toes dry and then apply a top coat of clear polish to finish up.

There are so many colour options, Mom chose a purple polish with Sugar Plum glitter and Catie used Bubble Gum pink (ever try to take a picture of an almost one year old's toes? Not easy!)

Now go dress up your toes!

One note, Mom said that the glitter gets a little dull after a while but you just layer on another clear coat and it's beautiful again.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

I know, I missed Wednesday.
We're back from our internet free vacation and I figured since I've taken all the photos I needed to share them. Here's a rare Sunday post, enjoy!

Wednesday

T-shirt - Old Navy
Jeans - The usual double button Old Navy Jeans
Shoes - White jellly shoes from Anabanana. I know you can't see them here but she wears them lots, you'll see them later.
Mr Brown - Toys R Us, he's very important to her.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I have a bunch of fun posts in the works but I hadn't even consideredthe possibility of not having Internet while on vacation this week.My husband and I are currently on a date sitting in the middle of thelake just so we can have a little Internet.

Stay tuned for more posts and in more exciting news I was featuredtwice this week. Once on Remodelaholic and once on House of Gace. I'dlove to link to them so I could send you over but blogging on my phonelimits my options. Google them, they're both amazing sites.

I hope your week is as amazing as mine. Today was spent swimming andenjoying this beautiful location.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The stroller is finished. You can read up here about how I turned my Umbrella stroller from it's ugly state into into it's half finished state. The rivets on the sunshade made me work a little, hence the half finished project, so this is a story about rivets.

Before I started this project I examined the construction and that's when I discovered the 6 rivets that held the sunshade in place. A rivet is a metal piece that looks like a bolt without the threads. It hold parts together really tight so holes are drilled in both pieces it's intended to hold together and then the rivet is slipped in. A machine folds the end down tight so that everything is held in place, a lot like grommets only more heavy duty. They aren't removable though and you need a special machine to put them in. I figured I'd worry about the rivets later so I went ahead and re-covered the seat of the stroller, it was held on by screws. That left me with this though, and later was now.

I read up on how to remove rivets and it involved a drill so I waited until Brad could help me and we broke a drill bit. Not surprisingly our wood bits didn't work so well. I next took the stroller to my brother and his metal drill and he removed all the rivets for me.

Here's a side view of the sunshade, you can see the 3 rivets there, there's 3 on the other side as well.

We flipped the stroller on it's side and he took a drill bit small enough to fit inside the back end of the rivet.

He started by drilling straight down.

Once that's done the goal is the break the little lip off the back so he made small circular motions until the back of the rivet popped off and we could slide the parts out. Sounds easy, and some of them were that easy. Some of them were far more difficult and there were many broken drill bits, go slow.

Also, not surprisingly the metal gets really hot! If you're using an old picnic table that's covered in plastic as your work table put something between the plastic and the metal.

Here's what I was left with once my rivets were all removed.

I then took everything home and re-covered my sunshade. In the rivet removal process I'd discovered that my brother has access to a machine to replace them, I just needed to provide new rivets so I headed over to Home Depot to buy some replacements. Then I went to Home Hardware and finally ended up at Canadian Tire. I needed two different lengths of rivets, the two bottom ones being longer, only they don't sell any that are that long so I switched the bottom two for bolts. I then purchased a package of 100! rivets for the other 4 I needed, that was the smallest package I could find. Then I waited two weeks until Rob's work schedule and my schedule lined up. I headed to his work and we went to add my rivet only to discover that they were too short. Back to Canadian Tire where I discover again that I can't buy rivets long enough so those 4 were replaced with bolts as well and the two weeks I waited for my Brother was unnecessary.

So it's put together and it's okay. I would have preferred rivets and the sunshade doesn't open and close as smoothly as before but at least it works and it's really beautiful. Here's a shot of the 3 bolts in the sunshade, both of these are views from underneath. I used rounded caps for the bottom two and I may replace the others with these as well, we'll see.

Here's one more before and after.

I like that my two strollers match now, fun that they're the same pattern.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Have you made Kebob Salad yet? Wasn't it yummy? Now you know that I only give you my best recipies so here's the next. I had this recipe last night and it knocked me upside the head it was so good. I've thought of almost nothing else since, so under the guise of playing games we invited people over tonight so I could have an excuse to share this with you.

That's right, Cookie Salad. It's a salad, it's good for you right?

I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the most beautiful dish but taste far outweighs looks in this one, trust me. And let's be honest, there's not much in it that's good for you but just go with it, be in the moment and enjoy.

Here we go...

The recipe calls for a tub of Cool Whip but I'm not super fond of it so I replaced it with real cream. If you're going to substitute like me then here's where you whip your cream. I sweetened it too, Cool Whip is sweet so I added a little sugar and vanilla.

While your cream is whipping open a package of chocolate drizzled shortbread cookies. I'm sure you've seen them, they're easy to find and apparently you can get them at the dollar store (I got mine at Safeway). Empty your package into a ziplock bag (or if you used the last one on something else today a bread bag works too). Give them a good smash with a rolling pin but not too much, you want some good cookie chunks.

I had a brilliant idea... you know how when you crush stuff with chocolate lots of it gets stuck to the bag? I decided to throw my cookies in the freezer first to harden the chocolate. Sadly I didn't have this brilliant idea until it was time to smash so give it a try if you make these, it might work.

While your cream is still whipping (or while it sits in the bowl if it's done already), mix your buttermilk and pudding and whisk real good so there aren't any lumps.

To your pudding mix add everything else. I tossed in my cream, then my cookies (heh, heh, I tossed my cookies) and then some berries. Give it a good mix and you're done.

I used blackberries and raspberries but you could use whatever you want. I didn't use a ton of them either about half of each package. After I'd tossed them in I wished I'd cut up my blackberries a bit since they're so big but it was too late so even though the recipe said to fold in the whipped cream which usually means be gentle, I did more of a chopping action with my spatula trying to smash the blackberries a bit. There's no messing this up.

Let it all mingle together in the fridge for a bit and you end up with something far yummier than I had anticipated. In fact when I first dished myself I took quite a small bowl, I expected mushy cookies but I was very wrong. Take a large bowl, you won't regret it. It's also delicious a day later, and for breakfast.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I'm so excited this post is being featured on Polly Want a Crafter, it's exciting to be among such talent. Since I finished this car seat re-cover I attempted a second with even greater results, you can check it out here.

It's time for Catie to be in a forward facing car seat so I picked up the one that Mom had saved for me from my nephew. It was functional, it does what it should it was just so ugly, and well used (dirty). I gave it a major face lift and it's like I have a brand new car seat.

This is the project I made the bias tape for, the sad part is now that it's finished I think a solid black would have looked even better. I'm certainly not changing it though.

Here's what I started with.

It has these flaps that fold over the armrests and they were attached with the most useless elastics. The fabric ALWAYS sat like this, in stead of the above. I figured now was the time to make improvements.

I took the thing apart, cut out new pieces and put it back together. I made the armrests longer and then sewed velco to the underside on the end. Using sticky back velco I attached the other side underneath the plastic so the fabric is held nice and snug, like so.

Now the fabric is pulled nice and tight.

I also made seat belt covers because they rub on Catie neck, she got an ugly red mark on her neck one day. I used Make It And Love It's tutorial for the covers. Basically you make up two little pot holders and add velcro.

See? Potholders.

You can tell that I did my corners different for the two, one of them look all nice and rounded and the other is pointy. I prefer the rounded corners but they just took so darn long and once you fold it you can't even see them so I got lazy on the second one. I also made some black bias tape but since I needed so little I just cut two strips off the bias and sewed them together.

Here's one more before and after

**Disclaimer, I know some people don't support messing around with car seats. I get it, you have valid points but I'm confident in the safety of my car seat. Let's leave it at that. **

I did the same thing this day, dressed her and then she went on a walk with Grandma in the morning but it wasn't warm enough for shorts so she changed.

Zip-up Hoodie - Roots, you can't tell in the picture but it has cute flowers on it
Jeans - Old Navy
White Jelly shoes again

Tuesday

Long sleeve layered T- Walmart
Brown Pants - Old Navy
Pink Crocks

Wednesday
Anyone else having a hard time uploading photos today? I had a cute picture of Catie in pajamas since it's too early for her to be dressed in real clothes but it won't upload. Perhaps we'll leave it for next week.